Germany's terror mosque

As reports about an alleged al-Qaeda plot in Europe emerge, it is beginning to look as though a mosque in Hamburg where members of the 9/11 plot against the United States gathered once again has served as a crucial al-Qaeda recruiting ground. That raises an obvious question: Have Germany's security services learned nothing in the last decade?

According to accounts by the German website Der Spiegel and CNN.com, a main source of information about the plot is a German citizen of Afghan descent, Ahmed Siddiqui, who was captured in July in Kabul and has been under interrogation ever since at the Bagram airbase.

Sidiqi formerly lived in Hamburg, where he frequented the Taiba mosque -- previously known as the al Quds mosque, where lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and other members of his "Hamburg cell" first gathered. German officials are saying Sidiqi and up to 10 other persons recruited at the mosque left Germany in April, 2009 for Pakistan, where they reached the tribal areas and joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group with close ties to al-Qaeda.

Sidiqi is said to have told his interrogators that members of the group were planning to participate in commando-style attacks on major landmarks in Berlin and other European cities. The plot reportedly was coordinated by a senior al-Qaeda commander, Younis al Mauritani and had the approval of Osama bin Laden. According to Der Spiegel Sidiqi met Mauritani in the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali.

As it happens, Mir Ali was the site of a U.S. drone attack Monday that Pakistani sources are saying killed five German citizens. It's not yet known if those militants are associates of Sidiqi or involved in the plot he described. But the development raises the question of whether German authorities have done enough to prevent terrorists from gathering and recruiting in places like the Hamburg mosque -- and why they have not been stopped from traveling to Pakistan.

Hamburg authorities shut down the mosque in August -- a few weeks after Sidiqi's arrest. But they failed to prevent him and his group from leaving the country, even though the mosque and its adherents were under surveillance. German sources are saying the mosque had become a magnet for would-be jihadis from around Europe, because of its connections to the 9/11 attack. Its imam, Mamoun Darkazanli, was identified by the 9/11 commission as having links to al-Qaeda financiers, and Spanish authorities have charged him with membership in al Qaeda. Yet he remains at-large and faces no charges in Germany.

Der Spiegel describes German authorities as being "skeptical" and "reserved" about Sidiqi's account, and as downplaying the threat of an attack. Another description word that comes to mind: dangerously complacent.

And yet, the WAPO and all the other FREEDOM OF RELIGION (sarcasm) Lib Outlets, would rather DIE, than have the Ground Zero Cordoba VICTORY MOSQUE moved away from HOLY GROUND.
This building was HIT by the Jet Engine from that PIG LICKER, Mohammed Atta's Aircraft. That MAKES IT Ground Zero.
What is it, about the LEFT, that makes them incapable of coming to grips with REALITY?
These people are KILLERS! And they will NEVER stop, until they are DEAD. Or, we are.
There's a REASON they named it CORDOBA.
Hopefully, the next time they strike, it'll hit closer to home for the people on the IDIOT LEFT. Hopefully it'll take out SULZBERGERS' Family. Or the KIDS of the owners of the WAPO. Or NBC. Then, maybe the situation will hit home. Maybe then, they'll get serious, and leave all that PC Make Believe, on the Playground. Where it belongs.
THIS IS REAL!
Just ask EUROPE.

GoomyGommy, wishing death upon people so that they start to agree with your political viewpoint (and the fact that you are an all-caps user) simply makes you a jacka*s. That and the fact that you seem to be ignoring the Constitution, except when it suits you.

Remember, it's unwise to write something that you wouldn't say to somebody in person. It might make you feel better by temporarily relieving your bile, but it certainly does nothing to enlighten anyone, and in the long run your hate will just rot you out from the inside.

You people who make these comments against a religion followed by half of the people in the world are ignorant. You don't even know half of the stuff you are saying. You need to stop living in your world where everyone is just like you and feed yourselves with knowledge.

You people who make these comments against a religion followed by half of the people in the world are ignorant. You don't even know half of the stuff you are saying. You need to stop living in your world where everyone is just like you and feed yourselves with knowledge.

You people who make these comments against a religion followed by half of the people in the world are ignorant. You don't even know half of the stuff you are saying. You need to stop living in your world where everyone is just like you. You need to learn about the world not just your backyard.

I truly hope that these comments do not reflect the general opinions of the people. All mosques are terror mosques? When did gross simplification like this ever ring true?
Wishing death on your own countrymen - on any human being, really! - just because they might have a differing world view is atrocious, and I find it hard to believe that anyone could say such a thing and mean it.
And why, in heaven's name, does johnson0572 write about "the offspring of Gestapo" being less diligent as if it were a bad thing? As if Americans preferred working with the third reich in this matter? It's deeply offensive and, I hope, far from the truth.
I have faith that there is an unspoken majority with less extremist views. Sadly, it's the extremists that use every opportunity to get up on their soapboxes.

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